As part of Deloitte’s Corporate Responsibility strategy, the international professional services firm is across the globe moving into new green offices and adopting green ways of working. Recently it has, in Amsterdam, moved into the world’s most ecologically sustainable building.

There is nowadays broad scientific consensus on human induced climate change, with dire warnings about the long term consequences of doing nothing to the status quo. In response, world leaders and business leaders are waking up to their responsibility to the environment that allows them and humanity to flourish.

As part of its 2009 Corporate Responsibility agenda, initially launched in 2009 yet revised since, Deloitte is taking a proactive stance toward climate change. Their plan includes provisions to encourage their personnel to use resources and modes of travel, that are durable and sustainable, as well as committing to clean energy, efficient lighting, eco-products, duplex printing and recycling. The accounting and consulting firm also has committed itself to greening its lease car fleet and adopting ecologically sound offices, with buildings that meet the high LEED standard.

Last month its Dutch country organisation moved into a new office named ‘The Edge’ in Amsterdam, a building which has been judged to be the most energy efficient building in the world, ranked as “outstanding” in the comprehensive EU “BREEAM” standard for the total ecological building quality. The 40,000 square meters building is 15 stories, houses office space to 1.800 personnel and is based in Amsterdam’s Zuidas, the key corporate and business zone in the country’s capital.

Innovative green‘The Edge’ has a number of innovative design and technologically advanced components. Its green features include tapping into the earth’s potential, with a 130 meter deep thermal energy storage system, allowing the building to capture excess heat during the day to be released back into the system when needed. It features solar panels, as well as a wide open window pane on the north-side allows 60% of the office building to be reached by natural light. Internally it features advanced adaptive lighting features developed by Philips. This system uses LEDs, which are up to 80% more efficient than conventional lighting. The lighting system is further connected through Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology, which allows the lighting system to be controlled and monitored through smartphone apps and building maintenance, creating greater efficiency in turning off unused light.

“When it came to identifying our new headquarters in Amsterdam, we wanted to ensure that our building not only had the right sustainability credentials but was also a real innovative and inspiring place to work for our employees. The opportunity to collaborate with a host of experts ensured that the finished building was sensitive to its surroundings and created a technologically productive and happy working environment,” says Peter Bommel, CEO of Deloitte in the Netherlands.

Earlier this year PwC received global praise for its super green new office above Charing Cross in London – up to now dubbed the globe’s most sustainable building – yet as of last month its title has been taken away by rival Deloitte.

The Edge was designed by PLP Architects, delivered by Dutch OVG Real Estate, and built by G&S Bouw.